Throughout the Great War, the French and German armies contended a narrow pathway in the north-east of France known as the Chemin des Dames. Three hundred thousand men lost their lives in the fighting, which culminated in the Nivelle Offensive of 16 April 1917. This sector was recorded as one of the most gruelling on the Western Front.

“If one had dug a mass grave there, from La Malmaison to Craonne, it [the pathway] would have needed to be ten times wider in order to hold all the casualties it had inflicted. There they are, three hundred thousand Germans and Frenchmen, their battalions intertwined in a supreme embrace that will now never be unravelled,” writes Roland Dorgelès in his novel on the Chemin des Dames.

Located in the French département of Aisne between Soisson, Laon and Reims, the Chemin des Dames route runs some 25.9 kilometres from Aizy-Jouy to Corbeny. Created around 1780 for the daughters of Louis XV [to facilitate their travels; translator's note], it soon became a place of recurrent fighting due to its strategic position. In March 1814, Napoleon secured a victory over the Prussians here; in 1914-1918 once again it saw the French and the Germans confront each other but also live together in the close proximity of the shelters carved out of the rocky terrain during the long months of fighting.

The hostilities culminated with the French offensive in April-May 1917 launched by the General after whom it was named, Robert Nivelle, on 16 April 1917 at Craonne. Hoping to achieve a decisive breakthrough that would enable them to reactivate a movement war, Nivelle envisaged a large-scale operation that spared neither equipment nor manpower. Two units of breakout forces (the Fifth and Sixth Armies) and one of pursuit forces (the 10th Army) took part with the equivalent of 53 divisions. The immensity of the operation was sensed by the soldiers. Louis Désalbres describes in his notebook “the human tide rising slowly towards the lines”. Indeed, on the morning of 16 April, about 180 000 men assembled below the German positions. The second line comprised 100 000 infantrymen as well as almost all the artillery and territorial regiments attached to the head armoured corps giving a total of 250 000 men. The third line counted around 120 000 men; the fourth, lying between Aisne and Vesle, 180 000 and the fifth, along the Marne, around Château-Thierry, numbered 55 000 men. If one extends the perimeter and includes the attacks of 17 April, other units can be added to the list giving a total of one million men assembled for this operation in a sector of around 40 km.

The French position was at a disadvantage. The “poilus” [French infantrymen] occupied positions below, at the foot of the hills dominated by the Germans entrenched in their highly organised, fortified lines. Having been in this sector since 1914, the Germans had cut a labyrinth of tunnels and caves (creutes) into the rocky terrain, suitable to withstand the assaults of the French artillery. Moreover, the French soldiers found it difficult to climb the steep hillsides and became easy targets from the German positions high up.

The weather was no longer favourable to the French. In mid April rain and snow transformed the terrain into a sea of mud that slowed down even further every attempt to move rapidly and at the same time caused a veritable health disaster.

The Offensive was launched at dawn. The accounts of eyewitnesses noted a short period of progress, which was quickly checked by the emergence of machine guns. Although effectiveness differed from one sector or another, realisation of the strength of German resistance led to conviction that defeat was inevitable. Despite several attempts to re-launch attacks: three on the 16th by the I Corps in front of Craonne, one on the 17th and one on the 19th April, the Offensive was crushed on the first German lines. A war of position resumed and lasted many months. The Germans accomplished a decisive breakthrough on 27 May 1918, which allowed them to take control over the entire area. Their momentum however came to a halt in early June. The French counter-attack in the following month, July 1918, led to the final defeat of the German armies on the Western Front.

The results of the operation in April 1917 were devastating. According to J. F. Jagielski, between 16 and 25 April 30 000 men were killed, 100 000 were wounded and 4 000 went missing. In ten days, 134 000 troops were immobilised. The disastrous failure of the operation contributed to undermining the hope of an end to a quick war, causing widespread turmoil within the army. On 15 May, Nivelle was replaced by General Philippe Pétain as Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, which had suffered widespread mutinies.

The Second Battle of the Aisne offensive became the metaphor for the violence of the fighting and suffering inflicted on the soldiers. In French popular culture, the Chanson de Craonne inspired by the Battle embodied antimilitarist aspirations. Nevertheless, the story it tells was just starting to make its way into official statements. At the time, the reality of the failed attack was played down proportionally to the publicity of the hopes it had raised. The investigation committee even managed to transform it into a partial victory, otherwise it was quite simply denied. Still today, the Second Battle of the Aisne is poorly represented in historiography, deleted in favour of other major operations on the Western Front such as Verdun or the Somme. The only covered monument on the sites – the Chapel of Cerny-en-Laonnois – was not inaugurated until April 1951. The Paths of Glory, a major 1957 film by Stanley Kubrick, partially inspired by the event, had to wait until 1975 to be aired in France.